On My Bookshelf

As I haven’t acquired any new books this week – how good am I? I thought I’d share my bookshelves with you this week having got the idea from another bookshelf sharer; Snazzy Books

So for one week only I have some pictures and I will answer some pre-ordained questions.

I often rearrange my bookshelves mainly because I can’t keep all the books that pass through this house so I have to rationalise fairly frequently. I tend to do this by giving my books away in small amounts rather than having one big clear-out.

This is the shelf that originally made up the header for my blog and the most prominent of the bookshelves in the house, the one book-loving guests first gravitate to when if they are like me want to have a good nose! These are the bigger paperbacks that I have and on this shelf because they are more or less the same size. The newest addition to this shelf is No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

How do you organise your books?
Each bookshelf is organised in a slightly different way. The full bookshelf (aka bookshelf 1) has the top shelf by size, the middle shelf is half-full of recently read larger books and half-full of the dual time historical novels by Kate Morton, Katherine Webb and Rachel Hore.

The bottom shelf is smaller favourite books and new additions to the TBR!

Favourite Authors that appear on your shelf?

These live on bookshelf 3 – amongst others you will find my Peter James collection, including You Are Dead,Sophie Hannah, Reginald Hill, Margaret Forster and Barbara Vine books. This shelf isn’t as easily accessible, being in the hallway, which is fine because I’m not so keen on lending these books out – many of them have been on several house moves with me!

What books do you have that you want to read soon but haven’t yet got around to?

Well these live on the bottom shelf of bookshelf 2 – apart from the overspill to bookshelf 1 (see above)

The book I’m most looking forward to reading from this shelf is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters after remembering how much I love her books when I read The Paying Guests
Which books do I wish that were on my bookshelf but aren’t?

I wish I’d kept a selection of my childhood favourites. I was often given books as presents and had beautiful copies of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Peter Pan, Anne of Green Gables etc alongside well-worn copies of an abundance of Enid Blyton books, Noel Streatfeild and Roald Dahl.

Which books on your shelf are borrowed?

I have been lent a copy of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry by a work colleague

Blurb

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India.
The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers – a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village – will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.
As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state. Goodreads

So that’s a snapshot of my books that sit neatly on a bookshelf and aren’t squirreled away because I may have run out of space again! Check out Snazzy Books shelfie too!

I think you may have the same bookcase as one of mine it looks similar anyway ( a Swedish retailer by any chance?). I orangise some books by publisher/edition. So I have lots of classics on one upstairs bookcase. A bookcase of Persephone and another if Virago. In my sitting room I have massive tbr (about 4 shelves squeezed onto two rows of books in front of and on top of others -simple chaos) and another bookcase upstairs which is completely random and unorganised. But as I am the only one who lives here I sort of know where everything is.

I’m not sure but not directly as Jersey is too small for one of those! I do wish I had more sets of books but I have plenty of variety to browse. As you say as long as you know what lives where, all is good!

I never thought I’d hear that you didn’t add any new books in a given week!!!
I love this post since, like any self-respecting book lover, I LOVE inspecting other people’s bookshelves! And I love the fact that you have a bookshelf in your hallway (so do I!).

I, too, love looking at other people’s bookshelves. I’ve been known to kind of drift away from a group and be found looking at books. The other day we were at some friend’s house and I realized that I was bending over trying to see what books were on a bottom shelf and totally ignoring a question the hostess had asked me. My husband told her that if there were books in a house, that’s where you’d find me – looking at them. LOL

I loved seeing your shelves…I have several shelves, too, although in my recent purging, I have cleared out three complete shelves. Not all at once, but over the period of time I was purging. I still have two large ones in the living room, three in my office, and four in my bedroom. Plus, there are books tucked away in my little country cupboards in the dining room and even a few in the pantry….LOL.

Thank you Laurel, I like the idea of arranging alphabetically but I get upset by the random heights of my books – there is a method to each of the three ‘main’ bookshelves but not a consistent one across all three!

Oh, how fun. Thanks for sharing. I wish I had more of a system for my books but I really don’t. I have shelves of books and three different bookcases, and books pretty much everywhere! I try and keep some type of order but it’s not easy.

My hallway bookshelf holds the books I haven’t read yet: it’s central for when I need to pick up a new book. Love your pictures, I do enjoy a look at other people’s bookshelves. The Mistry book is wonderful….

I love looking at other people’s (tidy) bookshelves. I read mostly on a kindle but do have some print books, mostly those I win or can’t resist buying used. I have Sarah Hilary on my wishlist after Trish recommended her at Between My Lines.

I read a lot on kindle but I do like print books too but try not to hang on to too many! Sarah Hilary is definitely worth a read, both books were brilliant reads, great issues covered backed up by tremendous story-telling.

You didn’t acquire any books?! *faints* Your bookshelves are so neat and organised – I’m impressed! Mine are a shambles – and the piles of books on every surface in the ‘spare room’ suggest I either need more shelves or less books – or no guests. I do try to weed them out fairly regularly but it doesn’t seem to help much. Thnak goodness for Kindles!

I know – see I can be disciplined! Thank you – the cupboards underneath, less so but the doors hide those! Is that less guests or less books? I dread to think what my house would look like nowadays without the kindle!